When former Tesla engineer Thomas Shedd took the position of TTS director and met with TTS including 18F on February 3, 2025, he acknowledged that the group is the “gold standard” of civic technologists and that “you guys have been doing this far longer than I’ve been even aware that your group exists.” He repeatedly emphasized the importance of the work, and the value of the talent that the teams bring to government.
How 18F Transformed Government Technology − And Why Its Elimination Matters
Like 18F, the United States Digital Service, which the Trump administration rebranded into DOGE, has seen waves of firings and resignations. On February 14, around 50 USDS staffers were terminated, primarily affecting project managers and designers.
Across all agencies, an estimated 1,378 federal employees with probationary status were expected to be fired in Alaska
Kitty Sopow is one, fired from her job with the National Weather Service based in Nome.
She was given warning of her impending termination — a complete surprise after more than four years with the agency. The next day, a Bering Air plane carrying 10 people went missing.
“So they needed me,” she said. “They didn’t fire me.”
“Everybody was able to be in the incident command center and ask questions to the meteorologist,” she said, recalling that day. “Because there was a storm coming, and there was literally only a handful of hours in which the helicopters could be utilized safely before there was like a four-day weather storm. So, I’m not going to not do that work. That’s what I’m here for.”
She and other agency employees spent days in limbo, wondering if they’d be fired, as well as evicted from federal housing.
“I’m living in the Arctic by myself. All I know is my work is telling me I’m fired, not fired, fired, not fired. Meanwhile, the price of eggs is like 30 bucks, and there’s airplanes falling down around me.”
Kayleigh McCarthy is a former federal employee and wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service, who worked summer seasons at the Anan Wildlife Observatory near Wrangell, in Southeast Alaska.
McCarthy’s role included monitoring the bears and wildlife area, administrative tasks, and maintaining the facility, everything from trail maintenance to packing out the viewing deck’s toilet tank, “which was a glamorous part of the job,” she said sarcastically, but an essential one.
McCarthy was in classes in Fairbanks when the firing news came down on Feb. 16. Like many other workers, the letter from the Office of Personnel Management cited performance issues, which she said was untrue. “Heartbroken, angry, upset,” she said of processing the news.
“It’s a job at a place that I really love, with people who I really care about, doing work that I think is important,” she said. “I can’t even count how many times I’ve had guests at the site say, ‘Thank you so much for what you’re doing. Your work is so important. We really appreciate you being here,’” she said. “And so it’s not just that I feel that it’s important, but clearly those who come and visit also think that it’s important to have these public lands, to have these experiences, to connect people with nature like this.”
Aaron Lambert is a former federal employee with NOAA Fisheries, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, based in Juneau.
Finally he got a termination email from Vice Admiral Nancy Hann on Feb. 27, citing guidance from the Office of Personnel Management and his probationary status, which read in part, “the Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs.”
“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “I was hired specifically because I have a unique skill set, in salmon forecasting and in-season management, and everybody through the top of my chain of command at the regional office recognized that my skills were very needed there, that my knowledge was very specialized and needed, and that my performance has been exceptional …. So it’s hard to accept, yeah.”
“It feels like there is an active dismantling of federal processes. And instead of creating efficiencies and making things work better, this is adding a lot of work and stress to people there, and these are all people who work insanely hard, have very little downtime, and really love their jobs and really believe in the NOAA mission,” he said.
“These are the hardest-working people I’ve ever met.”
They empty trash bins at trailheads. Dig pit toilets at backcountry campsites. Cut down trees in campgrounds at risk of falling on unsuspecting campers. Carve up logs that have fallen across hiking trails — often with hand saws. They’re first on the scene responding to a hiker’s broken leg in a fall that happened 10 miles from the nearest road. They coordinate tens of thousands of volunteer hours annually to rebuild trails. They are the workers in the recreation departments of the U.S. Forest Service.
Last month, 125 of them lost their jobs as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to shrink the federal workforce.
Most of those fired were early in their careers and more likely to work boots-on-the-ground jobs. (Few predominantly administrative or desk-based workers were fired.) The proverbial ax came down on these literal ax wielders because they were probationary — meaning less than one year into a full-time job, something they had earned after many years of seasonal work, and often hoped would be a pathway to a stable career.
In the meantime, here are stories of some of the people who worked backbreaking jobs for modest pay that leaves hands calloused and fingernails caked with dirt. As trails go uncleared and bathrooms overflow, their absence from the Forest Service’s workforce will undoubtedly be felt when you’re exploring Washington’s federally owned public lands this year.
She says she was fired not only for telling IRS staff where firings were coming from but also because she refused to call employees into the office over the weekend to onboard a DOGE staffer after they were putting in “60–70 hour” workweeks in the midst of tax season.
“They’re trying to politicize human capital. They want to be able to hire only loyalists, ignore Title 5 [of the U.S. Code] and commit flagrant prohibited personnel practices. When you look at the Merit Systems Protections Board and what the civil protections are, we’re supposed to have a nonpartisan civil service.”
DOGE has already infiltrated the IRS, seeking access to American taxpayers’ personal data, and Trump even wants to get rid of the agency altogether. But, like the rest of his efforts to overhaul the government, following the law is not one of his concerns.
What am I supposed to do? Mr. Duffy said. I have multiple plane crashes to deal with now, and your people want me to fire air traffic controllers?
“There were a number of employees who commented that they had nothing but exemplary performance reviews and director awards for meritorious services, so this notion that they were being let go [for poor performance] was ludicrous,” they said. “The answer was that they were simply copying the verbiage from OPM and that their value to the nation is no longer required.”
During the meeting, Begich was confronted by constituents laid off from federal jobs, a major source of employment for the state. "I was fired," one said. "Now I have no choice but to leave that community and probably leave Alaska, and so I just don't understand how these budget cuts are helpful to any Alaskans or their communities. And I'm just wondering what you plan to do about this."
The indiscriminate budget cuts could hit Alaska especially hard because the state has a high concentration of federal workers. There are about 15,000 federal employees in Alaska, and about 1,200 are "probationary," which generally means they have less than one year of service in their current position. If all probationary employees were fired, it would cost the state about $88 million in lost wages. Many federal workers are located in rural areas where there are few opportunities for alternative employment.
Alaskans cut from the National Park Service include "biologists, field technicians, logistics specialists, a superintendent, an archeologist and a pilot." Alaska is home to many Federal Aviation Administration employees, some of whom have lost their jobs. At least 30 Alaskans who work for the U.S. Forest Service, which plays a critical role in preventing wildfires, were also let go.
Nancy Bolan — who has spent over 25 years saving the lives of mothers and newborn babies — was fired from her health care position at USAID on January 28 as part of Elon Musk's purge at the U.S. Agency for International Development. A native of Queens and now a resident of the Bronx, NY, and a registered nurse practitioner and certified midwife, Nancy has devoted her career to helping the most vulnerable women and children, in some of the most war ravaged places on earth.
Jennifer Piggott proudly hung a red-and-blue Trump campaign flag outside her one-story home during the November election race.
Piggott is among more than 125 people dismissed in February from the Treasury Department's Bureau of Fiscal Service in Parkersburg, West Virginia, unsettling a community that voted overwhelmingly for Republican President Donald Trump.
Most said they knew BFS employees to be hard-working and didn't see them as the right target if the aim was to eliminate waste.
Scot Heckert, a Republican who represents parts of Parkersburg in the West Virginia state legislature, said he was worried that layoffs at BFS, which employs about 2,200 workers in Parkersburg, would "devastate" the local economy because the workers earned higher-than-average salaries, and because of the looming prospect of another round of cuts.
He said his daughter-in-law was among those fired and that he was seeking more information on why so many jobs were eliminated in a seemingly indiscriminate manner
Piggott, who like other fired probationary employees received no severance, faces an uncertain future. She said she and her husband, a disabled military veteran, have been discussing ways to make ends meet including selling their home.
One veteran caught up in the BFS layoffs was Chauncy James, who was promoted twice during his 18 months at BFS, the second time to building maintenance.
James, 42, said he too worries about making his mortgage payment and feeding his five children. At last week's rally he marched with a sign criticizing Musk and said he regretted voting for Trump.
"They are pretty much just coming here, chopping heads off, without really doing their homework," James said. "He got elected president and he's doing a lot of things that people never even imagined that he was going to do to us."
Oklahoma City resident Paige Willett started cutting back on activities after losing her federal job at the Bureau of Indian Education last month.
She grew up watching her now-retired father leave every day for work at Tinker, where he had a government job working on logistics and equipment management.
“Getting the chance to work for the federal government was very exciting, especially getting to do that while serving Indian country,” Willett said.
Christopher Bergquist worked in the HUD department that enforces federal fair housing laws prohibiting discrimination by apartment owners or real estate brokers
like many federal employees, he was fired last month, despite receiving the highest rating in his performance reviews
“Without somebody to put some teeth behind the Fair Housing Act,” he said, “you know, private landlords or people who own covered housing – what incentive is there for them to follow the law?”
A nurse and dedicated Trump supporter had recently been hired by the VA, packed up her family's Fort Worth home, and secured housing in Waco. Then, two weeks before her start date, the job offer was rescinded.
her husband—a disabled veteran himself—shared the devastating impact of the rescinded job offer on social media.
"[We] have spent thousands to move our family," John Basham shared on X, formerly Twitter. "Now our family is lost with no clear path."
"My wife is in tears and inconsolable," he wrote, explaining that working with disabled veterans had long been her dream. "My family is devastated!"
I joined the Department of the Navy because I believed in public service, in the mission, and in the people. After serving nine years on Active Duty — including multiple deployments — I was fired six months into my civilian career.
My supervisor, who was cc’d on all of my weekly emails to DOGE, was blindsided by my termination too. I was fired without counseling. I had not received a negative performance review. My entire chain of command had stated repeatedly I was doing a great job and that I was an asset to the team.
It’s hard to keep track of everything Musk has done in his unelected role as part of the Trump administration. With the endless barrage of news coming from Washington, my friends outside of the government were shocked to learn that the request that we provide bullets was real. It was real. This is what Musk wants – to sow confusion amongst the American people so he can operate without oversight.
The security threat posed by nearly 1 million DoD civilian emails going to a single email address is immense.